


Iron Insufficiency

by yaomomoyao



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Appendicitis, Friendship, Gen, Hospitalization, Not Beta Read, Sick Character, Sickfic, Surgery, Team Dynamics, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26665051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaomomoyao/pseuds/yaomomoyao
Summary: An accident at practice has rendered Kuroo helpless, but the Nekoma team rallies to bring him back up.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	Iron Insufficiency

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to my first AO3 post and I dedicate it to this sick character-centric fiction. This came after I stumbled upon a WebMD page about the illness and yeah, I galaxy brained my way out of it. Oh! I'll also have you know that English is not my first language and I didn't beta this (we die like men), so I'm sorry if the tenses/grammars give you a headache. You get the idea :) Anyway, enjoy!

"Is that your lunch?"

The libero grabs the chair from his desk, hands unwrapping his lunch box as soon as he seats himself down across Kuroo. Kuroo is sucking on a lollipop, his lunchbox nowhere to be seen, his body slumped at the top of the stacked books on his table. Worry grows as Yaku recalls the captain only poking his rice with chopsticks at team dinner last night, leaving half his gyudon untouched. He has become somewhat curious about his friend's sudden lack of appetite. And especially not before the grueling Interhigh prelims preparation days that they're about to face. Proper food lays the groundwork for muscles and the energy to play volleyball, after all.

"I'm not hungry."

"Are you sure? We're running today, remember."

"It's nothing really, I'll eat later. You don't have to worry about me."

"I will be, if you keep replacing your meals with a child's snack. You're not making any sense, bro." Yaku shakes his head, "Anyway, tofu nuggets?"

Kuroo nods and thanks Yaku for his offer, but he doesn't end up taking it.

On a normal day, he'd have swallowed half the portion of tofu nuggets from Yaku's lunch box. But today is probably not another one of them. To be totally honest, he has been feeling queasy since yesterday afternoon. Dinner wasn't sitting right and he'd skipped breakfast too, because the thought of meal made his stomach churn. He had cramps all over his lower abdomen and thought it would subside after sleeping it off, but the pain bounced right back when he woke up. His dad had suggested that he stay home after noticing his weird, unusual manner at breakfast; to which he replied with, obviously, a solid no. 

"It's manageable, Toosan. Nothing I could skip school for."

Kuroo had instantly regretted his decision, because first of all, the pain did not disappear. In fact it's been on and off all day. And second of all, if not for Yaku's nagging just now, he wouldn't have realized that it's Thursday--the worst day to come to practice because of the grueling cardio regime that Coach Naoi has arranged. There's no way he could skip it; not after he told everyone not to worry about him.

_Shit, I'm in too deep._

***

"Okay, guys. We'll be indulging on our Thursday menu today. Warm up and make a group of three."

Thursday practice calls for running drills. The route they are going is the hill just behind their school building, the same one they have been running up for years. Coach Naoi has the boys run in groups so that they'll be watching each other, especially after the accident which involved Kenma, Lev, and a cat stuck in a tree. The team is high on energy and it seems like yesterday's tiring practice game doesn't affect them one bit. 

Kuroo decided to power through, once again, in hopes nothing would go wrong.

A solid 15 minutes of running have passed when they reach the infamous Heartbreak Hill of Nerima. Kuroo leads Fukunaga and Inuoka in the front, Kai's group closing in behind them. He realizes he was dead wrong when the ache he has been suppressing with all his might sent him to a jolt. It was almost electric, and spots of black and white suddenly appear before his eyes, bringing his vision equal to a broken television. 

He tries to take a deep breath, but doing so only did so much as thickening the foul taste of acid in his mouth. The throbbing pain in his guts has left him on his last legs, and his body desperately tries its best not to topple over and roll down the hill as something rises from his stomach like a fountain to his chest then to his throat. 

The feeling is all too familiar, and he knows right away in a matter of seconds that he's going to be extremely sick.

With all the energy left in him, Kuroo steers away from the rest of the team. He kneels on the grassy ground, iron-gripping the roadside fence as he heaves out whatever was in his guts. Some weird-textured liquid mixed with acid as it burns its way up his mouth, leaving a funny aftertaste he cannot exactly point out. Nothing is audible, he can only hear himself retch and retch until he's sure nothing is left in his stomach. 

"Oi, oi, Kuroo-san!"

"Kuroo! What happened?"

"Inuoka, call the coach!"

The sounds of his teammates rushing in to huddle around him ring in his head, soon it's Taketora's yells pushing them away, then Kenma's soft but worried voice comforting him as the younger boy reaches to feel his forehead and goes on to rub supporting motions on his back.

"Fuck, my stomach hurts. Fuck." he groans.

"Where?" Kenma asked. Kuroo lifts his shirt and points to his lower right abdomen, in which Kenma touches and presses to feel for any abnormalities. The yellow-haired boy's expression is slightly taken aback as he feels a tender swelling on that spot.

"Kai-san, we need to call an ambulance too."

Kai immediately reaches for his phone and talks to the operator on the other end. "They'll be there in 15 minutes."

Kuroo retches again, at this point only water and yellow bile is splattered on the grass with the rest of his undigested meals. As Kai and Inuoka help him sit straight to lean on the fence, Kuroo stares blankly at the mess, rendered helpless on the ground. The gnawing pain in his midsection insists on fighting this battle he'd clearly lost.

"Hey, don't black out. We're getting you out of here." Yaku tapped on his cheeks gently as the libero tried to keep him awake. 

He glances at his teammates, feeling guilty, embarrassed, and weak at the same time. Among all types of inconvenient feelings there were, he absolutely hated making people worry the most. Especially for making them clean the aftermath of his screwup. His mouth feels too heavy to utter a single word and his body is barely able to move, so he closes his eyes in hopes that this did not actually happen.

***

Kuroo wakes up to the blurry ambulance lights, the pain still lingers here and there. A thin tube was attached on the back of his left hand. He sees Coach Naoi seemingly in a discussion with one of the paramedics. The images from earlier come running back to him: ambulance sirens, paramedics carrying him on a stretcher, and him answering their questions while trying his best not to pass out (to no success). 

"Ow..." He whimpers as the pain on his side sends him into another jolt.

"Hey, don't move too much." Coach Naoi's voice answered him. 

"What happened?"

"You threw up on the street at our running drills," Coach Naoi explained, "We took you on an ambulance and called your father. He will be waiting there when we arrive. We'll run you through a few tests to firmly decide whether or not you need an emergency surgery tonight. I think it's pretty certain, though."

He can feel his face turn pale at the last word. "What? What for?"

"Appendicitis."

Right. The pain from before was concentrated on his right side. He wants to smack himself in the head for not noticing, but what's the point--he's here anyway. 

The ambulance arrives at the emergency ward a few minutes later. The sun is setting outside and everything goes so fast, Kuroo doesn't even bother keeping track. His father meets them in the ward, still dressed in his complete work attire. His expression a little tense but he manages to laugh at his son lying weakly on the bed. 

"Told you. You should have skipped school today." 

"Shut up." Kuroo scowls. 

A nurse and a doctor make their way towards them, showing the result of the tests they ran on him earlier and confirm that a surgery will take place in an hour or so. Apparently it was a close call: had they been late to call for help, his appendix would have ruptured and infected his whole digestive system. 

"It's quite a routine procedure. You'll sleep through the whole thing and bounce back as good as new in less than a week."

Hopefully. 

***

Kuroo's surgery had gone well and he went to recovery as soon as it had ended. Although the pain has significantly disappeared, he still needs to adjust himself moving around because he doesn't want to risk hurting the wound. He's had all the pain in his lifetime in just one day and he never wants to think of going through another. If he does well, he'll be discharged in three to four days.

On Saturday, the team visits Kuroo in the hospital, bringing with them a care package that consists of fruits, meat buns, and a black water bottle ("so you can stay hydrated at all times, Kuroo-san!"). The sight of Kenma yawning incessantly, Yaku fighting with Lev, and Kai shushing Taketora and Inuoka's loudness quickly fills the air as they step into his room. As much as he's embarrassed to admit, he kinda misses the whole ruckus that they're constantly making on probably an hourly basis. 

He draws his usual grin, looking at his peers and kouhais. "Oi, lower your voice, this isn't the gym." 

"Ah, sorry, Kuroo-san! You know, you really shocked us all with what happened the other day!" Lev chimes in. 

Inuoka nods in agreement. "Yeah, it's crazy. That might be the first time I saw someone so in pain to the point they blacked out."

"How did it feel, Kuroo-san?" Shibayama asks.

"As if there's a knife stabbing you from the insides."

He then explains how he and the doctors don't know about why it got there in the first place, except that many people experience it as well.

"Well, that's the story of how you guys should pay attention to the tiniest detail your body is telling you. Or else you'll be vomiting on the street and have a part of your intestines chopped." Kuroo continues, "But enough about me, how was practice? Must be so lonely without your handsome captain, am I right?"

"We're doing just fine without you, thank you very much." Kai replied, "but without a certain cat eyeing us from every single direction, we admit there's something missing." 

Kuroo laughs. "Hey, don't do that to a grown man. I'm gonna cry." 

"Chatty already, aren't we." Yaku smirks to Kuroo's answer, in which he replies with a pillow throw at the libero.

"Nice receive, Yaku-san!"

As the bickering continues on and on, Kuroo couldn't help but to feel grateful for his team. Hadn't it been for their quick response, who knows what would happen to him. Despite the little pain still lingering on his scars, he's already looking forward to next week where he'll be back to the game. In the end, he is a part of the blood; he needs to get moving too. 

He'll come through, just like he always does. A stomachache is not gonna drag him down.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reaching this point. Kind feedback is always appreciated!


End file.
